Hearthstone Fans Are About As Mad As You'd Expect About New Monetization
Hearthstone has been running for almost 10 years now with relatively minimal changes to its monetization strategies. That's changing soon, with a big update that will introduce a real-money currency and even a change to its popular Battlegrounds mode that fans are calling pay-to-win.
Starting with the 24.2 update, all real-money transactions will be bought with a new premium currency called Runestones. That change is coming alongside some big changes for Battlegrounds Season 2, like the addition of a Battlegrounds-specific season pass and some changes to the paid perks.
Fans on the Hearthstone subreddit have been criticizing the announcement, and those criticisms really come down to two main complaints.
The first is general unhappiness that Hearthstone is adopting a paid currency system, which is a common tactic in free-to-play games that is often criticized as predatory, since it obscures the amount of money you're spending. Some fans have said they understand that this is just standard operating procedure for mobile games at this point, while others lament that Hearthstone is adopting the scheme after so many years avoiding it.
Currently, players can buy cosmetics, packs, and other items with in-game gold, or as real-money transactions represented as actual currency values in your region. Select cosmetics are exclusively available as real-money transactions.
The more severe charge is that Blizzard's proposed changes to its auto-battler Battlegrounds mode will make the game «pay-to-win,» giving players who buy into the new Battlegrounds season pass a distinct advantage over those who don't. With the new Battlegrounds season pass, those who pay for the premium tier will be able to select from four heroes at the start of
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